Part 1, Lesson 5: Finding Recipes

Part 1: "I Don't Know How To Cook"
Lesson 5: Finding Recipes


Ruts.  We all get stuck in them.  Those dog-eared recipe cards and cookbooks in your kitchen can provide comfort... and boredom.  Time to expand your recipe collection.

Whether you store your recipes in an index card box, three-ring binder, shoved inside a cookbook, or on your computer, get it out now.  Is your system working for you?  How do you use it?  If you don't have space on your counter for an overstuffed binder, how can you improve on your system?  Can you easily add new recipes?  Really take some time to examine your method.

My method evolved over many years.  I started off with 3x5 index cards in a box (meticulously copied from my mom's collection) simply because that's how my mom did it.  And how my grandma does it.  Then I started adding recipes and I found that 4x6 cards worked a lot better, so I upgraded to a three-ring binder.  I collected recipes from magazines and newspapers and shoved them into the slots thinking I'd sit down and copy everything down onto real cards one day.  Of course that never happened.  So I started keeping my recipes in text files in a folder on my computer.  That worked well for a while until I ultimately uploaded them all to Google Docs.  Now I can get at all my recipes all the time from any computer.  I recently started adding photos to the recipes.


There are plenty of places to collect recipes: the library, the Internet, the newspaper, and TV.  Once you're comfortable with what flavors, textures, and ingredients work together you can just start winging it.

Your Homework
Find three new recipes to make this week and make your own meal plan in your RFBC Journal.  Add your new recipes to your collection.  Now you can really evaluate your system.  Is there an easier way to do this?

We'll go into further detail on meal planning in Part 3.  Care to share what you came up with?